CTDATA Going Long on Used Books
Dave Aiello wrote, "Used books have been on the CTDATA radar screen since Martin O'Donnell told me about a Fred Bernstein essay documenting the process of selling used books on Amazon that appeared in the New York Times back in April. When the bottom fell out of our consulting business over the summer, this was CTDATA's major source of income."
"Our consulting business has stabilized, but I've decided to continue to expand our used book business in order to backfill a small portion of the revenue we've lost due to the economic downturn. It's clear to me after toying with used books as a business concept over the past eight months that there is still an unmet need in the marketplace. Those businesspeople who can exploit a competitive advantage will be able generate measurable amounts of cash for the foreseeable future."
"We are increasing the size of our used book inventory as quickly as possible. Our goal is to take advantage of the inevitable increase in sales that will take place during the holiday gift-buying season. We think a larger inventory of sought-after used books will be a good investment even after the first of the year."
"I also believe that this is a sideline business for CTDATA, and not the primary focus. We are working on ways to leverage the knowhow we have developed in small-scale e-commerce to boost our core consulting and software development business. Look for more details about how we will do this here on CTDATA.com in the next few weeks."